Synantropic animals and pets as a reservoir of coronaviruses

DOI 10.33861/2071-8020-2022-2-3-7

Lipilkina T.A., Golovin S.N., Popov I.V., Lipilkin P.V., Ermakov A.M.

Summary. Diseases caused by coronaviruses have been affecting animals and humans for a long time. Transmission of the virus occurs both from human to human and from animal to human with a zoonotic origin. The main reservoirs of coronaviruses are thought to be animals, which need to cross the interspecies barrier to transmit the virus to humans. The aim of this work is to study the host range of coronaviruses and the probability of virus transmission from synanthropic animals to humans. In this review, we analyzed coronaviruses data among the most common members of the synanthropic fauna. Synanthropic animals carry many different strains of coronaviruses, some of which are potentially dangerous to humans. Also, coronaviruses from bats seem to have no more probability of infecting humans than coronaviruses from other animals. It also cannot be ruled out that anthropogenic activities affect the spread of coronaviruses to humans more than direct animal activity. Bats are a reservoir of a- and в-coronaviruses, birds are a reservoir of y- and б-coronaviruses. Alpha- and Beta-coronaviruses are found in humans and mammals. Alpha- and Beta-coronaviruses cause mild and severe acute respiratory syndromes. Severe respiratory syndromes include SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. These diseases affected a large number of countries in 2002, 2012 and 2019 COVID-19 affected all countries, causing a pandemic. In the population of some synanthropic bats and birds, coronaviruses are regularly present, which can cross the interspecies barrier with subsequent human infection. But the exclusive presence of various strains of coronaviruses in the population of these animals is not enough for interspecies transmission to humans. An important role is played by the habitats of animals and their seasonal intersection with the places of residence of people, as well as the peculiarities of the spread of coronaviruses in the external environment, depending on physical conditions: temperature, humidity, air movement, etc. Anthropogenic impact and urbanization create new plans for the interaction of people with various animals, which does not exclude the evolution of coronaviruses and the emergence of new reservoirs of infection in the immediate vicinity of places where people live.

Keywords: coronaviruses, synanthropic animals, bats, mice, rats, dogs, cats, birds, epidemiology, epizootology.

References:

1-94. Vide supra.

Author affiliation:

Lipilkina Tatyana A., post-graduate student of the Department of Biology and General Pathology of the Don State Technical University; 1, Gagarina sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344010; phone: 8-905-4563847; e-mail: tterpitskaya@gmail.com.

Golovin Sergey N., assistant of the Department of Bioengineering of the Don State Technical University; 1, Gagarina sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344010; phone: 8-918-5361591; e-mail: electromicrolab@gmail.com.

Popov Igor V., laboratory assistant of the Research Laboratory of the Agrobiotechnology Center of the Don State Technical University; 1, Gagarina sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344010; phone: 8-999-6934028; e-mail: doc.igor.popov@gmail.com.

Lipilkin Pavel V., assistant of the Department of Biology and General Pathology of the Don State Technical University; 1, Gagarina sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344010; phone: 8-918-5882467; e-mail: leeletter@ro.ru.

Responsible for correspondence with the editorial board: Ermakov Aleksey M., D.Sc. in Biology, professor, Dean of the Faculty of Bioengineering and Veterinary Medicine of the Don State Technical University; 1, Gagarina sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344010; phone: 8-928-2143344; e-mail: amermakov@yandex.ru.